Treat Your Valentine to Home Made Chocolate Covered Strawberries!

It's that time of year where everyone catches the love bug and treats that special someone to something delightful. The commercialization of the holiday makes things more convenient as well, with assorted boxed chocolates, and even store bought chocolate covered strawberries. Although your sweetie might be happy with the stuff you found at the store, it would mean so much more if you made them yourself! Believe it or not, but chocolate covered strawberries are very easy to make, and it can be more cost effective as well. I'll give you and easy step-by-step recipe for making your own chocolate covered strawberries, you'll be surprised how easy it is!

First, take a sheet of wax paper and place on a large baking sheet (make sure the baking sheet is upside down!). In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips. The time will vary, since chocolate is sensitive based on climate and microwave brands vary. Keep and eye on it and be sure to stir it for even melting. You might also find melting instructions on your chocolate packages, so remember to check those as well. Make sure berries are completely dry before dipping. Grab the berries individually by the leaves and dip each berry up to it's fullest diameter. Give each berry a gentle shake so the excess chocolate can fall back into the bowl and so the chocolate can also fill in the crevices around the seeds. Place each dipped berry on the inverted baking sheet with wax paper. When finished dipping, place inverted sheet pan with berries in the fridge for about 10 minutes. The inverted sheet pan will help solidify the chocolate faster. During this time melt the 1 oz of white chocolate in a microwave safe ziploc sandwich bag according to melting instructions on the package. Squish the white chocolate around in the bag to make sure it's evenly melted. With a pair of scissors, cut a very small piece from the lower corner of the sandwich bag, now you have your own little frosting bag! Take the berries out of the fridge. With a sharp, zig-zag motion, draw streaks on the berries with the white chocolate, return to the fridge for another 5-10 minutes, and your Valentine's treats are ready!

As I always say, don't be afraid to get creative! You can switch the colors around, or even cover the berries with sprinkles or finely chopped nuts right after you dip them in chocolate. You can even make your own funky designs with the white chocolate, or whichever chocolate you'd like to use. You can make them as unique as you want, and it might impress your sweetheart too ;)